I am not bothered by political discussions where it’s appropriate, like in a specific subreddit or forum somewhere…
But seeing an incredible amount of political stuff almost every single day in trade chat is starting to really annoy and infuriate me.
It isn’t that it makes me uncomfortable - honestly, there isn’t much else I love more than intelligent conversation about the world we live in - but I come online to enjoy Azeroth and (to sound a bit extreme) escape from the outside world and play a game I enjoy. I hang out in Orgrimmar or Stormwind to do my auctions and sell items within the trade channel, so leaving the channel itself is not an option. Nor should it be in fact, because it is called [2. Trade] for a reason.
Since politics are seemingly an integral part of the World of Warcraft community, would anyone be opposed to having a separate channel about politics? That way, people can still vent their frustrations and have discussions freely, but not bog down a channel that is supposed to be about trade and commerce within Azeroth.
I don’t propose this idea to shutter any ideals or opinions, but I have a very strong feeling I’m not the only one who’s annoyed by those who sit in a major city and use trade chat to vent their political frustrations.
I get it, but it has literally ALWAYS been that way. I have /2 disabled in all my chat, and when I roll an alt, it doesn’t take long to for me to remember that I need to go and turn it off.
It cannot be moderated enough to stop it. It’s physically impossible. It will not ever change. There are people with ZERO self-control in that area, and it will always–always–be a problem.
Trade Chat is the “general chat” of WoW. People want to chat about whatever they feel like in the channel where the most people are. Which is Trade. Trolls have the same mindset (not that all political posts are from trolls).
Ultimately, I enjoy this. If chat is restricted to only game-related topics, chat would be quiet most of the time. Even when I’m not actively participating, I like seeing people active. Sometimes that ends up being political. That’s fine up to a certain point.
Don’t censor Trade Chat. If it’s on a politics kick when you log on, just hide chat for a couple hours.
whoa dude, calm down… ur acting like the channel system came down with aids. if blizzard would just put in a few channels for people to talk in that spread across the right realms and could cover off topic, and such so that trade and lfg channels would not need to be flooded with that stuff.
The idea itself isn’t bad, but nobody would ever use it. I’m not bothered by intelligent political debate either, but the majority of those discussing politics in trade chat aren’t arguing in good faith. They just want to be inflammatory and argumentative. Mentioning he who must not be named is an almost guaranteed salt mine.
Think of it like this; we already have an off-topic forum here on this forum, yet the most controversial posts that aren’t even related to WoW always pop up here on GD. A separate politics thread might be a good space for constructive thought, but it won’t remove the people in Trade/General that you’re taking issue with.
It isn’t about censoring Trade, it’s about moving the conversation to a different room. I’m not about censorship and that was not my point to the post. It’s a channel about commerce and trade, not politics.
You’re technically not allowed to talk about anything political in game chats that are blizzard-made, so you see someone talking about politics? Report them, if enough people report them action happens. The only way.
Most of the problems people have is because of not enough people are reporting it. Make a guild, get them to report politics.
/looks down at her boobs and removes a crumb from her shirt
Whoa, dude. I’m perfectly calm.
I’m not sure what a communicable disease has to do with trade chat, but I was simply trying to sympathize with OP and explain that no amount of moderation–even if they put someone on it 24/7–would stop political chat in the trade channel. If they made a dedicated channel specifically for political chat, it would not stop trade chat spam and gen chat spam from existing.
I’ve been in Azeroth a fair few years, now, and political ranting and screaming has always graced the 1 and 2 channels. It always will. There’s no way to censor it, even if Blizzard took it to mind to do that.
Hence, the recommendation to turn it off if he dislikes it so much.
It doesn’t matter. It’s the most populous chat channel, so literally everything that people want to be heard will go there. Doesn’t matter if it’s idle chatter, actual trade, people looking for pugs to fill their run, guild ads, trolls, politics, gold sellers, carry spam, whatever. It’s going to go there.
Even if Blizzard were to make an official opt-in “Politics” Channel, no one would use it, just like no one uses LookingforGroup for anything but a global general chat (not as active as Trade because it’s opt-in) and no one used GuildRecruitment when it was still a thing.
The only reason people post -anything- outside of Trade Chat when they’re in an area that has access to it is to try and reach people who have Trade Chat turned off. And they usually just post in both.
And to be clear, the reason Trade is so populous isn’t because it’s gone semi-unmoderated for so long or anything like that. It’s populous because it’s the furthest-reaching channel that’s automatically joined by every new character.
If you ban political discussion in /2, where will all the goons who can’t pass the 7-11 Slushie Machine Operator’s Test go to get their doctorate in Politkul Smartness with a minor in Constatootshunul Expertness?
Yeah, no actual conversation please! I need to go back to seeing the same “selling M+ carries” message being spammed over and over again by multiple characters so you keep seeing them after ignoring one of them. And nothing else, ever.
You can always hide trade chat or just learn to deal with it because don’t forget the Americans have a mega election this November and I expect wow trade chat to melt down